Hallmark Christmas Workshop: In the movie series "Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story"

The third film in association with the NFL is the centerpiece of the 2026 Countdown to Christmas opening weekend.

The thing about shooting a Christmas movie in the summer is that, well, it's summer. The temperature is not suitable for actors wearing woolen coats and scarves, and snow on the ground is going to be added in post.

The cast and crew who came to Chicago in July to film Holiday Touchdown: A Bears Love Story — Hallmark's third Holiday Touchdown movie in partnership with the NFL and Skydance Sports — faced these realities. The weather brought some truly stifling heat, including highs in the mid-90s, and several days of an air quality emergency due to wildfire smoke across the upper Midwest.

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Hallmark has been shooting a lot of holiday movies during the summer months, but it's got a system in place to keep people cool.

Bears Love Story star Robert Buckley told The Hollywood Reporter, "Our wardrobe department made us ice packs, which are basically on a spandex band, so you can put them on your lower back." "You basically have a giant block of ice on your lower back."

Buckley's co-star Lindsay Fonseca and producer Andrew Gernhardt also noted that the crew was taking care of the cast. "We have a really great team around us, pulling our sweat down, taking our coats and giving us a hand from the fans," Fonseca said. Air-conditioned areas and water stations were available for scenes filmed outside, and background actors wore winter gear only as long as necessary before retreating to cooler locations, Gernhard added.

On the day THR visited the production, no hidden ice belt was necessary: Filming was taking place inside Halas Hall, the Chicago Bears' headquarters and practice facility on the outskirts of Lake Forest. The cast and crew filmed a charity auction scene to raise awareness for Bears Care, the team's charitable arm. Director Dustin Rickert worked efficiently, filming several shots of contestants filtering through the auction.

Highlighting the team's level of community outreach is a feature of all three Holiday Touchdown movies and a key part of Hallmark's partnership with the NFL. Filming on location is the same. The first two movies were shot in Kansas City (also Hallmark's home base) and Buffalo, with NFL and Bills executives in attendance.

"We're a storytelling brand, and we want the authenticity of the storytelling," Darren Abbott, president of Hallmark Media, told THR. "Part of that is making sure we represent the community where the teams play and where the fans come alive. I think that's as important as any aspect."

A Bears Love Story headlines the first weekend of Hallmark's 2026 Countdown to Christmas program. The film opens on October 17 and centers on Avery (Fonseca), a freelance reporter who visits her mother and stepfather (Barbara Allyn Woods and Harry Python) in Chicago. Platonic ex-boyfriend (Eric Lynch) at the (fictional) Chicago Herald offers to introduce Bears superfan Darlene Donnelly (Marsha Mason). Buckley plays Matt, a Chicago firefighter and grandson of Darlene, who writes the paper about Darlene attending her 500th Bears game. He and Avery meet and — this being a Hallmark holiday rom-com — develop feelings for each other when he shows her around town, and Darlene makes not-so-subtle attempts to bring the two closer.

"Are there aspects of our storytelling that follow a formula? Yes," says Abbott. The character development would be great. There will be relationship and love story. I mean our movies are rom-coms. We've diversified our storytelling over the last few years, but at the same time, we don't stray too far from what we know our audience wants. Contributions shine a cultural spotlight on the story—putting us in jeopardy, if you will.

The NFL partnership began in 2024 with A Chiefs Love Story, which started with the team's social media staff and produced a video that aired on Hallmark Movies. Abbott and Hallmark saw the video and asked if the bosses were interested in collaborating. "The whole plan started to move very quickly from that point," says Abbott.

That's when Skydance Sports, a joint venture between Skydance and the NFL, got involved. "When we first got the call from the Chiefs saying Hallmark had approached them about the idea, a lot of people [from the league] were like, 'What does the NFL have to do with Hallmark?'" Jason Reed, head of scripted and television at Skydance Sports, told THR. It doesn't seem to overlap. "A number of us immediately said, 'This is the best idea ever.' Part of that is because at Skydance Sports, we're tasked with expanding the demographics for the NFL — how do we reach a younger audience, how do we reach a non-traditional football audience? So we immediately said, 'That's a great idea.' We have to lean into this as much as we can."

A Bears Love Story also leans toward its location: it's almost certainly the first Hallmark movie in which the main cast eats Italian beef and gets shots of Malört. The film also makes good use of Chicago, featuring locations downtown and in several neighborhoods.

"I think what makes these movies unique is the fact that they fit the culture, the city, the people," says Gernhardt, who also produces A Bill's Love Story (along with a slew of other Hallmark holiday movies). "What was great about The Bills was that we went to Buffalo and really got into the culture. It's the same with the Bears. We stay in the city. We shoot in the city. We shoot in Soldier Field, in Halas Hall. We shoot in a firehouse. We shoot in neighborhoods. When people see how well Hallmark has done this for this city and for this people and for this culture, the thought "I think they'll really connect."

Like the other Holiday Touchdown movies, A Bears Love Story uses several current and former players - Cole Kmet, Colston Loveland, Caleb Williams and coach Ben Johnson from the current team and Bears greats Dan Hampton, Mike Singletary and Charles "Peanut" Tillman. Connie Payton, widow of Bears Hall of Famer Walter Payton, also makes an appearance.

"If they show up and they're uncomfortable or they don't want to be here, and they all show up and play, it's totally appropriate," Buckley said of the bears who appear in the film. "I had a really funny moment because I'm a big Colston Loveland fan. I had to keep reminding myself, "Keep cool, keep cool." "You're twice his age, act like a pro."

Both Buckley and Fonseca are Hallmark veterans, having appeared in more than a dozen films between them. They keep coming back because their pace keeps them going — most Hallmark movies have a three- to four-week shooting schedule — and they keep having fun.

"There was a woman who was an extra, and she was just a huge Hallmark fan," Fonseca says. He was almost crying and talking to me. I asked Ashley Williams [another Hallmark regular] to FaceTime her on the phone, and she seemed to make her day. "So that's why we're doing it."

"I really like to make a product that I not only enjoy being in, but also makes other people happy," adds Buckley. That's what I hear all the time from fans of these movies - they go to them for solace. "So if I can be a part of something that brings someone an hour and a half of happiness on a bad day or a good day, I'm all for it."